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Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Architecture Wednesday: The Kew House

This is a something old, something new house.

The four bedroom family home is made up of two sculptural weathering steel volumes that have been inserted behind a retained 19th century stable wall in the Kew Green Conservation Area of southwest London.

The house was designed with the owner’s vision of their children running about … summer dinners outside … and the balance of quiet nooks with social spaces.

The house makes the most of the constrained site by reducing the building’s mass along the street; consisting of two rectangles — one slightly smaller, set back and sunken a meter lower — the two rectangular wings each have living spaces on the ground floor and bedrooms above. The wings are connected via a glass encased “circulation link” that allows light to pour into the house while providing breathing space between internal spaces.

The two shells housing the main living and sleeping areas are formed of weathering steel, which is then softened by a patchwork of perforated panels. The deep orange tones of the steel and the perforations within this skin echo the dappled light and autumnal palette of nearby Kew Gardens.

But it wasn’t so easy to build; a list of planning constraints included the conservation area context, a change of use from stable to home, and having no access on three sides of the home. To overcome these challenges the architects, Piercy & Company, inserted the house behind a retained 19th century brick gable end and then split the house into twin gabled forms in keeping with local area.